Calculation of Cooling Tower Performance and Required Fill Height

The tower coefficient is presented by the equation

KaV
= C + Hm& wn + m& am or similar presentation.
m& w
Assume the performance of a particular cooling tower design follows the equation:
KaV
m&
= 0.02 + 0.5H ( w ) 0.6 at water to air mass ratio = 1.2
m& w
m& a

Consider a chiller plant system (capacity 500kW) with COP at 4.5 is designed with a cooling
tower, the design entering and leaving condenser water temperature of the cooling tower are
37C and 32C respectively, the design wet bulb temperature of the outdoor air is 28C, what
are:
a) the cooling tower coefficient
b) the required condenser water and air mass rate (in kg/s) in the cooling tower
c) the required height of the fill
Solution
a)
As the air and water temperature are not changing linearly, the entering / leaving water
temperature should be cut down into small steps of, e.g. 1C / 1K, in an iteration process to
determine the heat transfer in each step.
The changing enthalpy of air in each step dha can be derived from the equation:

m& wc pwdTw = m& a dha

At m& w / m& a = 1.2 , c pw = 4.18 kJ/kgK, dTw = 1 K
dha = 1.2 4.18 = 5.0 kJ/kg

A table indicating the cumulative heat transfer is presented as shown:

Enthalpy
Difference

ha

h ha

1
(h ha )

kJ/kg
100.0
(28C WB)

kJ/kg
11.0

kg/KJ
0.09091

K
1

105.0

11.9

0.08403

123.0

110.0

13.0

0.07692

35

129.5

115.0

14.5

0.06897

36

136.2

120.0

16.2

0.06173

37

143.3

125.0

18.3

0.05464

Water
Temperature

Enthalpy
of Film1

Enthalpy
of Air2

hs

C
32

kJ/kg
111.0

33

116.9

34

NTU=

c pwt
(h ha )avg

NTU

0.3656

0.3656

0.3364

0.7020

0.3049

1.0069

0.2732

1.2801

0.2432

1.5233

Note:
1. Enthalpy of saturated air film at different temperature are obtained from thermodynamic tables of moist air.
2. Enthalpy of air starts at 28C WB = 100.0 kJ/kg and then increases by 5.0kJ/kg per 1K increase in water temperature.

The tower coefficient NTU is calculated to be 1.5233.

b)
The required condenser water can be obtained from the actual heat to be rejected at the
cooling tower.
The chiller has a cooling capacity of 500kW and the COP is 4.5.
The work input for the compressor = 500kW / 4.5 = 111kW
Total heat to be rejected = (500 + 111) kW = 611 kW
The mass flow of condenser water can be calculated:

Q = m& wc pw (Twl Twe )

611kW= m& w 4.18kJ/kgK(37-32)C
m& w =29.2kg/s
Thus
m& a = (29.2 / 1.2) kg/s = 24.3 kg/s
c)
The height of the fill can be obtained from the equation
m&
KaV
= 0.02 + 0.5H ( w ) 0.6
m& w
m& a
1.5233 = 0.02 + 0.5 H (1.2) 0.6
H = 3.35m